Cooties
by rainwater tears
Summary: Childhood memories are precious, even the ones we forget.


Title: Cooties  
  
Author: Rainwater Hair (AKA Lizibit)  
  
Summary: Childhood moments are precious, even the ones we forget.  
  
Rating: It's perfectly G ladies and gentlemen, and thank God, considering it's about five-year-olds.  
  
Disclaimer: If only Jess were mine, or the McDonalds franchise for that matter, considering the founder's wife had 1.5 billion dollars to donate to the Salvation Army, but alas, no, Jess belongs to someone else, everything belongs to someone else, I bet the word "Cooties" belongs to someone else, and therefore I am left broke and with no defense (should the WB actually have time to sue me) save these brief lines. Oh vell.  
  
___  
  
At five years old Jess Mariano's knowledge of the world was not particularly extensive. He knew not to eat sand, and to wash his hands before meals and to brush his teeth before bed, and he knew that girls had cooties, but he didn't know the dangers of women went far beyond the imagined germs of kindergarten.  
  
His mother seemed normal enough. She kissed him goodnight each night and hugged him before he went off to school each morning, she made him dinner, she taught him to read, and she made sure he didn't eat to much sugar. He had always assumed that all mothers were like his. He barely even knew the word father. What he knew was boyfriend. Mostly one boyfriend. Brandon.  
  
Brandon was normal, too. He watched Saturday Morning Cartoons with Jess while him mom slept in, he taught Jess how to make spaghetti, and mostly he made Jess's mom smile. But when Jess was five Brandon made Jess's mom cry, and that was when Liz decided to take Jess on a road trip.  
  
She mapped out a plan, starting in the city and ending in Florida. She thought Jess might like to meet Mickey Mouse. He certainly enjoyed watching him. Liz didn't really care where she ended up, just so long as she wasn't anywhere near her memories. They left after Saturday Morning Cartoons, although Jess didn't seem to be watching them with quite the same gusto now that Brandon wasn't there to laugh at the jokes that Jess didn't quite get.  
  
New Jersey was boring, Pennsylvania was insufferable, and Deleware was just plain dull, but when Liz agreed to an impromptu stop in Maryland Jess found the trip much more agreeable. Especially when the McDonalds Liz found had a playground full of little boys (and a brown haired girl, but she wasn't nearly as interesting).   
  
The ball pit was fun, the slide was acceptable, but it was a tunnel huddled in the middle of the plastic contraption that Jess found to be the most appealing. He curled his body around to fit the shape of it and pulled a chapter book out of his pocket, he was the most advanced reader in his kindergarten class (in fact, the only student to get past the alphabet), and he wanted to stay that way. He was on the second page when he was (rudely) interrupted.  
  
"Excuse me, but you're blocking the tunnel and I want to get through."  
  
Jess didn't even look up. It was a girl. Ick. "Go around."  
  
"There is no around."  
  
"Go down the slide."  
  
"I've already gone down the slide. I'd like to fully appreciate every aspect of this playground before my mother makes me leave, and I can't do that if you're blocking my way."  
  
Jess looked up this time. No one he knew (aside from stuffy adults who walked around his school sniffing and looking superior once ever six months) used a vocabulary like that. What he found was the girl with brown hair. She was wearing a blue corduroy and white tights. She looked about his age, but she certainly didn't sound it. "Who are you?"  
  
"I'm not supposed to tell strangers personal information."  
  
"Well I'm Jess, now I'm not a stranger anymore. Now tell me, what planet do you come from?"  
  
"Venus. Women are from Venus. Men are from Mars. That's what my mom says. And I'm Rory."  
  
"That's a boy's name."  
  
"Nuh-uh."  
  
"Yes it is."  
  
"It's short for Lorelai, Lorelai is a girl's name."  
  
Jess turned back to his book. He was not getting into an argument with a, with a...girl.  
  
"What are you reading?"  
  
"Wayside School."  
  
"I read that book. Do you like it?"  
  
"I'm reading it aren't I?"  
  
"Well you could be reading it just for the sake of reading it...or because you have to. My school makes first graders read for grades, you might be a first grader, but then it's really a third grade book, and you certainly aren't a third grader, unless you skipped a few grades, or if you just look really young, the girl who babysits me looks like she's ten, but she's really fifteen. Or at least, that's what she told my mom, but I'm not sure if she's telling the truth, either way, she's nice enough, and I haven't gotten burned or murdered yet, so I guess she's a good babysitter. Not that I'm really the one to judge." She paused for a breath, and Jess sighed.  
  
"Is there any way to shut you up."  
  
"My mom likes to tease me and say she'll find my off switch one of these days, but I know she's just joking. Is there any way to make you less moody?"  
  
"Yeah, don't make me sit in a car for four hours straight."  
  
"I was in a car for five hours and I'm not grumpy."  
  
"Well you're clearly overly perky."  
  
Rory smiled. "It's because I'm allowed to drink coffee, unless it's Luke's. Luke won't let me drink coffee. He says I'm too young, but Mommy sneaks it for me sometimes, just because it's the best coffee in town, and she knows what it's like to be deprived of it. She wasn't allowed to drink it while she was pregnant with me. She says she'll never have another baby again because of it, but I hope she's kidding, because I've always wanted a little sister, or a brother for that matter, I'm not picky."  
  
"If I get out of the tunnel will you leave me alone?"  
  
Rory looked confused for a second, as if she'd forgotten where the conversation had begun, and by her rapid topic changing Jess realized she probably had. "But I find you an interesting conversational partner."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I don't know. Most people want to talk, so they interrupt me. I hate it when people interrupt me. You don't talk, though, it makes it easier to rant."  
  
"Well talking is overrated."  
  
Rory was about to respond when a woman's voice from below called her name. "That's my mom. I have to go."  
  
"So soon?" Rory didn't catch the sarcasm, Jess wasn't sure it was actually there.  
  
In the split second before she darted off towards the slide that would take her to her mother, Rory leaned forward and pressed her lips to Jess's cheek. It was an innocent kiss that happened so quickly that Jess couldn't be certain it actually had happened, but there was a slight scent of cherry lipgloss lingering longer than it should have. Jess's face lit up for a fraction of an instant as brown hair disappeared in a blur of five-year-old (caffeinated) energy, and then returned to it's previous scowl as he tried to wipe the invisible remnants of the event away with the palm of his hand.  
  
"Ugh, cooties."  
  
___  
  
I know they sound a little older than they're supposed to be, but Rory and Jess are very smart, and probably always have been, and hey, Rory was raised by Lorelai. Come on.  
  
I thought tossing in Luke might be a nice link, even if Jess doesn't know she's talking about his Uncle.  
  
-Lizibit. 


End file.
